Friday, July 10, 2015

I’ve never been a huge fan of the calzone, and I assume most
people that don’t eat their pizza crusts feel the same way. However, since this
has been requested hundreds of times, I thought I’d put my personal feelings
aside, and give the recipe a shot.

I call it a recipe, but it’s actually a technique, since the
calzone's greatest feature is its ability to accept any combination of cheese,
meat, and vegetables as a filling. Today, calzones are most commonly stuffed
with the exact same toppings that go on a pizza, which, besides the crust
issue, was one of my main problems with it. I mean, why not just fold a pizza
in half, and call it a day?

So, I decided to do what I hear is a more traditional filling,
featuring ricotta, fresh mozzarella, and ham. The result was as enjoyable, as it
was surprising. It was almost, but not quite, lasagna-like. The extra crust
didn’t bother me as much, and everything seemed to work together beautifully.

I decided to recommend our Wolfgang Puck dough recipe, because it's fast and easy, and features a nice lightly textured dough, but any prepared pizza dough will work nicely.

Just be sure to bake this long enough. If you make these the
same size, it’s going to take about 15 minutes at 500 F. Your calzone may look
nicely browned at 10 minutes, and it will be tempting to take out, but the
dough will still be raw. You really want to push this to the point of almost burning.

And what happens if you go too far, and it does burn? No
problem. Just order a pizza and fold it in half. So, whether you’re already a
calzone lover, or a reluctant skeptic like me, I really hope you give this a
try soon. Enjoy!

I use your pita bread recipe as a pizza and calzone dough. Sometimes I mix in garlic and parm cheese. It seems similar enough to the Wolfgang Puck dough so I'm probably going to keep using it. I wasn't baking it at 500 for the calzone though and I could never get the crust to feel right. Maybe that's the trick. thanks!

Just in time for Top Gun 2. You had me with Al Capone, but the Kenny Loggins follow up had me laughing out loud. While the project is only in a development stage, we can hope Top Gun 2 will include the immortal classic, Highway to the Calzone Zone.

Thought you should know that Parks & Rec swiped your "highway to the calzone zone" line. Season 7, episode 9 "Pie Mary", around the 9:50 mark and **BOOM**... Chef John's humor cannot be forgotten. You've made waves, my friend. Big waves. Are we still friends if I watch Parks & Rec, or did I just ruin our relationship?

I'd like to use decorative muffin tins to make mini-calzones, using different shaped tins for different ingredients. Do you have any suggestions for how to best seal the dough together in that sort of cup-like configuration?﻿

Made these Saturday night for a Make Your Own Calzone party. Also used the Wolfgang Puck California pizza dough which was super quick and easy. My husband added fresh baby bellas to his calzone and loved it. Thanks!